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Apple TV a 'Dud' says Fortune Mag
- Thread starter keysersoze
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Agreed, and it amazes me how overlooked this is. Ton of great video podcasts that I watch out there now with very unique content. I never liked sitting in front of a computer to watch video no more than I'd want to lay on the couch to work on computer projects. In the same vein as a DVR, I have all the podcasts waiting for me on the TV when I get home. (I just hope they update it someday so that the unit can independently subscribe to and download podcasts instead of being dependent on a computer/iTunes.)
So in that regard, AppleTV has been very valuable to me and I've watched a lot more video podcasts now, and also iTunes shows. Some of it can be low video quality although comparable to regular cable TV, but others are in higher quality (like Leo Laporte's MacBreak). The iTunes Store with TV episodes is also appealing as I watch little on cable, so it's actually far cheaper for me to subscribe to the few shows I do like than it is to shell out $50 a month.
Granted there's always someone there to make the "$10 cord" argument and if it works for them, great...but that would be a pain in the ass having to play/stop/change programs by having to go to your computer each time. Especially if your TV is in another room entirely.
In addition to the halfassed hardware issues, aren't they still missing content from most of the major studios? I like the general concept and if done right, being the Apple junkie I am, I'd certainly buy into it, but at this point it is a botched product. Hopefully they'll do a serious revamp and improve it instead of stubbornly insisting people just "don't get it" and letting it languish until it's tossed upon the scrapheap of other failed Apple endeavors.
I didn't "get it" for the longest time and may still not understand it the way they intended, but I finally bought one for music and I love it! And I will probably play around some with the videos, but that is not my reason for buying.
Not a botched project but the missing link between the antique media and the new media.
The new media is where you and I participate. So, if you don't like change don't get one but realize a storm is coming!
You have a cord running all the way from your computer on one side of your house to your TV on the other? Incredibly lame.
And you spend so much more.
One thing people tend to forget about the appleTV is that since it's basically a computer, many of the complaints people have made can be addressed with software upgrades. Did apple rush this to market? But unlike a strictly hardware product, they can easily make fixes and add new features to the ones they've already sold. Things like buying videos from the TV will happen, apple just didn't hold up the product release until the features are ready.
Fortunes misfortune
I do believe at present the Apple TV is a bit a head of the market, but the original iPod was a slow starter. Once the downloadable content and the market speeded up to mp3 music ( not including the geeks in collages already on the boat) the iPod took off. The Apple TV is ready for expansion it runs OSX so the ability to add functions and untie it from the computer is there. I see the product being a stepping stone that is testing the water, and though the product may not change the functionality around it will.
My response the the writer of the article is as follows.
It is obvious from your article of Apples products that you just don't like apple. It is sad that you cant see the success of a company and be happy for them. Not all products are perfect and even if they are they still sometimes don't make a big hit.
The thing is about critics is they have no skill, talent or foresight of there own and can only trade of the misfortune of others, I hope for all that know you your life improves soon and you can move past your continued disappointments.
Frederick Fowles
I do believe at present the Apple TV is a bit a head of the market, but the original iPod was a slow starter. Once the downloadable content and the market speeded up to mp3 music ( not including the geeks in collages already on the boat) the iPod took off. The Apple TV is ready for expansion it runs OSX so the ability to add functions and untie it from the computer is there. I see the product being a stepping stone that is testing the water, and though the product may not change the functionality around it will.
My response the the writer of the article is as follows.
It is obvious from your article of Apples products that you just don't like apple. It is sad that you cant see the success of a company and be happy for them. Not all products are perfect and even if they are they still sometimes don't make a big hit.
The thing is about critics is they have no skill, talent or foresight of there own and can only trade of the misfortune of others, I hope for all that know you your life improves soon and you can move past your continued disappointments.
Frederick Fowles
I don't own one, but I thought the photos were a bit alarming...
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/06/11/100060835/?postversion=2007053007
I love the tone of this article...as if he was debunking a myth that Steve Jobs is a demigod. Nobody's perfect, and we can hardly blame every Apple flop on Steve himself. And how do we even know the TV is a flop? It's only been out a few months!
Why doesn't anybody write articles like this about people who actually act like they're Jesus incarnate? (I'm thinking about Donald Trump right here.)
The pictures are pretty damn funny, though. And his point is valid: it seems that Apple TV still has a long way to go before it reaches iPod greatness.
It's been our just over 2 months now (I think the first shipments were in late March). How can you judge anything flop in that time? I was all ready to write it off myself until I realized what a great music jukebox it would make with the tv menu system (the video has no appeal for me). Now if it just had better searching capabilities, I'd be ecstatic.
Well I serve my apple tv avi's , dvd's (iso's and vob folders), h264 files etc from my nas in my closet. For this I use the plugins ATVFiles (AVI's), NitoTV (DVD's), Automount (mount my NAS).
AC3 5.1 WORKS from AVI files with the latest ATVFiles however playing 5.1 DVD's still isn't working yet ... just a matter of time.
I've just installed Apache and MYSQL on the thing and working to get a web based torrent app to work on the thing so I can start leaving my pc off more.
All of the above works with out changing the built in UI. Still some bugs but expected for plugins that have only been in development for like a month.
Anyways please don't pm me to ask how I did this as there are some great tutorials on other sites. I just wish it had development toosl
Without AppleTV
You need that and to schlep the laptop to the TV and stick it on the floor and pull the cables out from behind the TV which you left installed because you twisted your back putting them in the first time. Opps battery is low. Better go get the charger. Hmm I've still have a G4 laptop without frontrow or a remote. I'll just sit on the floor and advance the photos. Boy this is fun!
Oh dang. The pictures are on the tower upstairs with the 500 gig drive. Lets get a thumb drive and run upstairs and get those pictures. (significant other looking a little annoyed at this point). Wait, you think to yourself, I can just just stream the photos to the laptop. Oh heck I still have to run upstairs and wake the G4 tower and start iPhoto.
With AppleTV
Just returned from the Memorial day parade. Significant other says "Shall we go upstairs and see the photos of my father in the parade" I say "Just go open a bottle of wine and meet me here on the sofa" Five minutes latter we are watching the photos on a 45 inch screen in a comfortable seated position instead of standing hunched over so that we can view them on a 20 inch screen.
Some things are worth the money you spend.
I really am strating to warm to this product.
I have slated it but I think apples vision is just that little bit far ahead of most of us.
It's real time could be a little time away but they have it out.
I could see a use to listen to my itunes through the hifi, watch home movies and our photos.
Can it be used to listen to the BBC's listen again streams??
I have slated it but I think apples vision is just that little bit far ahead of most of us.
It's real time could be a little time away but they have it out.
I could see a use to listen to my itunes through the hifi, watch home movies and our photos.
Can it be used to listen to the BBC's listen again streams??
I bought it to do #1, but can't really use it for the rest without a widescreen tv. And that won't happen for quite a while yet. I really wish that Apple would provide an aspect ratio setting in the Settings menu for those of us that are still in the "dark ages". Perhaps Steve can afford all of the latest gadgets; the rest of us are stuck in the real world.
I think the perfect device would be a combination of a Mac Mini with antv. It would be a DVD player. It would be a DVR. And It would have all of the functions of the
And keep the price tag around $500.
Nah. I'm just dreaming.
Why not just forget about getting an apple tv and buy a mac mini instead.. hook it up to the TV and use front row.. or for that matter any other program you want..?
I'm not on the
TV bandwagon.. I can't find a reason to buy one.. I feel its missing WAY too much; I don't buy/DL movies off the net, I rent them in the form of DVD's; I use the internet for browsing & shopping, checking mail and working from.. Other than that I use my TV watch Satellite HDTV programing. So YES if the
TV were a HD-TV service DVR, DVD or High-Def DVD player and computer portal devise I would have bought one.. but its not and I have no use for it as it is now... HA, even if it was just an uprezed progressive DVD player I would have bought it as I am needing a new dvd player.Why not just forget about getting an apple tv and buy a mac mini instead.. hook it up to the TV and use front row.. or for that matter any other program you want..?
I'm not on the
So YES if the
I'm guessing the main reason not to buy the Mini is it's twice as much. For the price of one mini I got two AppleTVs which covers the two TVs I care about. I'm loving mine but I understand the hesitation. To each their own. I think this is Apple way ahead of the field, hopefully they don't abandon this before everyone catches up.
And hopefully they will add 4:3 support for those of us that haven't caught up to hdtv yet.
I was in the Apple store in SF twice over the past week, once over the weekend and the other last week. Both times, the Apple TV displays were all but deserted. It was hard to see anyone with even a passing interest, and no one (except me) stopping to check it out and fiddle with the remote.
It doesn't look good when the iPod displays always have folks checking them out, and the computers are all but impossible to even get close to (laptops and desktops) because there are so many people hovering over them, but the Apple TV section looks conspicuously ignored.
FWIW, I think The Apple TV is a good idea that's a little too ahead of its time. I was pretty underwhelmed by the video quality of the content I saw (which was apparently movie excerpts from the Apple store) pumped into a Sony HD display. Basically, if I'm going to bother with a HD display, then I want HD content that's going to give it a good run for it's money - no excuses, no compromises. Apple's "near DVD" quality isn't going to cut it in my book, and next to forthcoming Blue-ray and HD-DVD content (which I've seen and it does look amazing), the Apple TV isn't going to rate a passing glance.
Apple TV will come into it's own once real HD content is distributed in a user/consumer friendly way over the web, but that day is still somewhere in the future. File size will have to come down and bandwidth will have to go way up. By the time that happens (especially in the US), either Blue-ray and/or HD-DVD players will have become established HD content systems and the likely successors to standard def DVD players in most consumer homes.
It doesn't look good when the iPod displays always have folks checking them out, and the computers are all but impossible to even get close to (laptops and desktops) because there are so many people hovering over them, but the Apple TV section looks conspicuously ignored.
FWIW, I think The Apple TV is a good idea that's a little too ahead of its time. I was pretty underwhelmed by the video quality of the content I saw (which was apparently movie excerpts from the Apple store) pumped into a Sony HD display. Basically, if I'm going to bother with a HD display, then I want HD content that's going to give it a good run for it's money - no excuses, no compromises. Apple's "near DVD" quality isn't going to cut it in my book, and next to forthcoming Blue-ray and HD-DVD content (which I've seen and it does look amazing), the Apple TV isn't going to rate a passing glance.
Apple TV will come into it's own once real HD content is distributed in a user/consumer friendly way over the web, but that day is still somewhere in the future. File size will have to come down and bandwidth will have to go way up. By the time that happens (especially in the US), either Blue-ray and/or HD-DVD players will have become established HD content systems and the likely successors to standard def DVD players in most consumer homes.
I agree, but remember that Apple's vision for the iPod didn't unfold overnight, either. iTMS wasn't introduced until about 18 months after the first iPod, and iTunes wasn't ported to Windows until 6 months after that, or 2 years after the iPod showed up. So when Steve Jobs introduced the iPod in October 2001, it appeared to be just another MP3 player, and a lot of the Apple faithful thought Steve was smoking crack to be entering that market. In a similar way, I think Apple have some surprises in store for this little
TV gizmo, and I think the YouTube thing is just a hint of what's to come.I wouldn't be so sure about that. There is a school of thought that says hi-def DVD (whether BR or HD-DVD) is destined to be more like Laserdisc than DVD; in other words, an enthusiast specialty more than a mass-market phenomenon. You can read such an argument here, as well as an updated view (14-Jun-2007) here. I don't take quite as dire a view as this author, but there is no doubt that the consumer electronics industry really has blown this, what with competing formats and massive consumer confusion (I've read eyewitness accounts of guys in Best Buy purchasing HD-DVD titles to play on their new upconverting SD-DVD players!).
Average Joe just doesn't have a clue about what's going on. All of this means that Apple has a huge opportunity here, if they move quickly enough. Despite what the video nerds on this forum and the A/V forums say about "if it ain't 1080p, it ain't worth having," Average Joe is going to be thrilled by the look of a 720p movie on his new flatscreen, and this ought to be doable today with what we already have. I believe Apple could in fact preempt mass-market adoption of the hi-def discs, but they need to really move on this! Yes, bandwidth is an issue, especially in the US and Europe, but widespread adoption of HD movie downloads will finally force the ISPs to really deliver the bandwidth they advertise (and more), and stop getting away with murder.
I don't take quite as dire a view as this author, but there is no doubt that the consumer electronics industry really has blown this, what with competing formats and massive consumer confusion (I've read eyewitness accounts of guys in Best Buy purchasing HD-DVD titles to play on their new upconverting SD-DVD players!).
Yes, bandwidth is an issue, especially in the US and Europe, but widespread adoption of HD movie downloads will finally force the ISPs to really deliver the bandwidth they advertise (and more), and stop getting away with murder.
You make very good points and I can back you up on the consumer confusion. I work at an independent video store and we've begun to carry BDs and HDDVDs for rent. People have rented the DVD/HDDVD combo discs and been unable to figure out how to use them in the DVD players.
As far as bandwidth goes, we as consumers should really be complaining a lot more about our internet quality. Comcast screws its customers by giving them slow cable service and Verizon is too lazy to put in Fiber Optical cable. About 4 years the water system was redone in my neighborhood and despite the work of tearing up the street being done for them Verizon choose not to put in fiber.
A DVR would be a bad move! It ties all of your content to one device (the DVR). If you live in a house with more than one TV, you have two choices. Either have a DVR on each TV and be sure to TiVO your favorite programs on both DVRs.
Granted Apple TV doesn't have a DVR feature (nor should it), but if you had this on your computer and then synced your programs onto iTunes, then they would be available to any Apple TV in your house.
Granted this could get expensive, but then again the price of the original Apple TV may drop to lower than $200.00 in the future.